Unexpectedly Good Players

[Dache]

Agreed.

I have a suspicion, and this is just a guess, that most of the top teams have several 2nd and 3rd round picks in the line up with the super late round guys being more of an outlier.

Yeah without looking that sounds right. You’ll have the occasional 5-7 round guy but it certainly won’t be the norm, even on top teams

 

[RustyCat]

Andrew Copp for Winnipeg. Can do it all - play wing, play centre, play with top six, play checking/shut down role, excellent PKer, and is on 2nd PP unit. Pretty good for a 4th round selection.

 

[ReggiesLemons]

Current late round picks who have had solid careers, Pat Hornqvist, Freddy Andersen, Ondrej Palat, Anton Stralman, Justin Braun and Erik Haula. Retired players, Robitaille, Zetterberg, T. Fleury, Gilmour, Brett Hull and Datsyuk,

Some current undrafted players who have had solid careers. Sergei Bobrovsky, Mark Giordano and Torey Krug. Recent retirees include Marty St. Louis, Dan Boyle and Brian Rafalski.

Side note, Tim Thomas was a 9th round pick. Belfour and Cujo were also undrafted and signed as FA's.

 

[chaser17]

Not a big name but Travis Moen for me, grew up not far from where i'm from. Hard working player and key contributor on the 07 ducks and 750 games played. Never woulda seen that coming based on his junior career.

 

[M2Beezy]

Aidan McDonaugh will be soon enough

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Nick Paul has been the hardest working player for Ottawa consistently. I had Thought he was on his last life hockey wise.

 

[robertmac43]

Tyler Bozak

 

[The Pale King]

Funny side thought. How many times has a teams last pick been better than it's first I wonder?

For the Kings it's happened three times by my count. In 1969 they took Butch Goring with their final pick in the fifth round, who'd last 1100 games in the NHL and win four cups with the Islanders. He was certainly better than their first pick that draft, Dale Hoganson, who still stuck around for 343 games.

Dave Taylor just misses the cut. Taken 210 in the fifteenth round in 1975, he'd play 1111 games, all for the Kings and was an important part of the famous Triple Crown Line. The lowest drafted player to hit 1000 points. Certainly better than Tim Young, their first round pick, who was no slouch either with 628 games and a couple of nice seasons. But LA had to ruin it by drafting Bob Shaw, Taylor's teammate at Clarkson University, who never made the NHL with the 215th pick in the draft.

I thought Luc Robitaille would be a fit here, as I was certain he put up better numbers than whoever they took first that year. But I didn't realize the Kings took four more players after Robitaille at 171 in 1984, drafting all the way up to 232.

Kimmo Timmonen just misses here too. I had forgotten the Kings even drafted him, 250th in the 10th round in 1993. He certainly turned out better than Shane Toporowski, but the Kings were determined to draft everyone with a pulse that year, taking Patrick Howald at 276.

In 1999, 250th pick Noah Clarke actually made the NHL and managed 21 games, whereas their first pick in the draft, Andrei Shefer managed zero.

And finally in 2013, all signs point to 191st pick Dominik Kubalik being a better player than Valentin Zykov, taken in the second round at 37. Mat Roy in 2015 certainly has a shot to do the same.

So I count three times where it's clear for the Kings, with a lot of close calls. And worst of all, a lot of years where neither their first pick or their last pick in a draft managed any NHL games.

 

[BlueBaron]

Nice post @The Pale King .

Really shows what a crapshoot drafting is.

 

[Markster]

David Ayres. Who knew?

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Mark Stone

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen of Conor Garland. A 5th round pick with little fanfare turned legit top-6 (if not top line) winger.

 

[HockeyWooot]

I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen of Conor Garland. A 5th round pick with little fanfare turned legit top-6 (if not top line) winger.

Beat me to it.

 

[PWiz30]

Guy Hebert went from DIII NCAA all American to the NHL all star.

 

[NK94]

Lubomir Visnovsky.

Visnovsky was draft-eligible in 1994, wasn't drafted until 2000, ended up being a bright spot on some very bad Kings teams and was extremely productive everywhere else he went afterwards, especially in Anaheim.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Mats Zuccarello.

 

[snowkiddin]

Does Neal Pionk count? Went undrafted, got shelled in New York and from what Rangers fans were saying, was crap. Now he’s playing like a 1D in Winnipeg.

 

[Ebbisen]

Dan Boyle

Dan Boyle at eliteprospects.com

 

[ziggyjoe212]

Patric Hornqvist is the epitome of this thread. Last pick of his draft. Can't skate, can't pass, can't shoot. Turned into the best net front presence in the league, even scoring 30 g once.

 

[nowhereman]

I remember back in 2006 when the Canucks recalled this undrafted Quebecer who had spent most of his career in the ECHL and was humorously dubbed the "Wayne Gretzky of ball hockey". I would have never thought he'd be such an important part of the team going forward or that his name would be in the Ring of Honor.

 

[VinikToWinIt]

Palat in the 7th is pretty crazy looking back. But the Lightning have a ton of mid to late round overachievers on their roster.

Kucherov- 2nd
Point - 3rd
Cirelli - 3rd
Killorn - 3rd
Joseph - 4th
Gourde - UDFA
Johnson - UDFA (hey he was good once)

Of these, the only guys I really remember everyone being excited about quickly were Kucherov and Point.

 

[Conbon]

Tyler Bertuzzi for Detroit

Bertuzzi was considered a reach in the 2nd round. I think the Red Wings knew what they had.

 

[FlamesFan18]

The obvious picks on Calgary are Gaudreau and Giordano

But Mangiapane is quite the sucess story. 6th round overager who is quietly one of Calgary's best forwards.

 

[beardawg]

Patric Hornqvist is the epitome of this thread. Last pick of his draft. Can't skate, can't pass, can't shoot. Turned into the best net front presence in the league, even scoring 30 g once.

In other words, "Can't do much but his hand eye is amazing"

 

[Laus723]

In other words, "Can't do much but his hand eye is amazing"

I think he passes well, she’s well enough to always be in the right spot and make hits, and his shot is decent but not great. Guy does a ton out there, motivates the team, pisses off the opponent and gets them off their game, is a wall in front of the goalie and takes tons of abuse. Love that he’s a Panther.

speaking of, Mackenzie Weegar has been great for us. 7th round guy that a scout talked Tallon into trading back into the draft to select, and is now paired with Ekblad. Since then, Ek has looked every bit of a #1 defenseman and they make a solid top pairing. Love that he re-signed for 3 years.